Kerry Page - the Cleckheaton woman who could face up to 25 years in a Kenyan jail - has suffered a major blow in her fight to clear her name.

A magistrate in Nairobi, stung by coverage of the case in British newspapers, has turned down an application by Kerry's lawyers for the return of her passport.

Before dismissing the application, the magistrate made it clear she would resist any efforts to bring pressure to bear on her from Britain - and demonstrated that by waving a file of press cuttings.

Batley and Spen MP Mike Wood, who has been liaising with Foreign Office and Kenyan authorities, revealed what happened at the hearing.

Kerry, 29, is on bail in Nairobi awaiting trial on May 18. She is charged with theft and handling stolen United Nations goods - including forklift trucks, vehicles and containers - worth £200,000 during a relief mission in Somalia three years ago. She denies the charges.

Kerry's mother Elaine Garnham of Old Popplewell Lane, Scholes, who believed keeping Kerry's case in the public eye through the media was her only chance of getting the charges dropped, is devastated by the news.

She has cancelled a planned trip to Downing Street on Tuesday to hand in a petition to secure her daughter's freedom.

The petition, calling on the Foreign Office to press Kenyan authorities to release Kerry's passport, will be handed in without ceremony by MP Mike Wood, who is supporting the family.

Mrs Garnham, 46, who was reluctant to speak about the latest setback, would only say: "I will not be going to Downing Street with Mike Wood.

"From now on I will have to very careful about what I say about Kerry's case."

Kerry's grandparents Geoff and Dorothy Greenhough, of Holdsworth Street, Cleckheaton, have collected more than 4,000 names for the petition by asking shoppers at Tesco in their home town to sign it.

The petition was started after Kerry's lawyers revealed it could take up to seven years for the case to be resolved.

Kerry's family argue she should be allowed to return home or to her job as a shipping manager in Dubai in between the hearings, especially as she is running out of money to cover the cost of staying in Kenya.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.